Namaacha

Sorry for the delay. My internet resources have been lacking here in Namaacha Moczmbique. The past few weeks have been extremely crazy. Starting with a day in Philly, then a busride to New York, followed by a 15+ hour flight to Africa de Sul and another hour flight to Maputo. We spent a few days in Maputo learning about our future here in Mocambique. Then we had the awkward journey to Namaacha where we met our homestay families. My family is huge!!! I live with minha mae(Mama Rosa), meu pai(Adolfo), minhas 3 irmas(Angelina, Nercia, and Adorosa), and minha prima(Suzana). We have 3 dogs and 4 puppies, 8 ducks, 5 chickens, 2 cats, and a huge machamba(vegetable garden). Along with every type of fruit tree you can imagine. Including the heavenly fruit called ata.

My life consists of learning portuguese all day everyday. No one in my family speaks english. It is rough, but I cant believe how quickly I am learning portuguese. I can hold basic conversations with people, and get better everyday. I am running out of battery juice at the moment but I will share one quick story.

Next week my language group has to cook an american dish for all of our moms. There are 5 of us. So we decided to cook stuffed peppers. The word for full in portuguese is cheia. So we said we were going to make pimentos cheia. They did not understand and frantically kept correcting us to say muito pimentos which means many peppers. It took about 10 minutes to explain that we are going to fill the peppers with other food.

Tomorrow I am hiking to the borders of Swaziland, Africa de Sul, and Mocambique. I will post again soon.

Tchau